The invention relates to a device for demagnetizing one or more magnetic recording media, preferably in the form of a tape and wound up, which device consists of an alternating current-operated coil which is provided with exciting windings and into the interior of which the recording media can be inserted.
A device of this kind is known from GB 2 130 001. According to the teachings of this document a spool around which magnetic tape is wound is inserted in the radial direction into the interior of an electromagnet, the field distribution of which extends essentially perpendicular to the winding plane and parallel to the direction in which the spool is inserted. A resonant circuit is formed by a charged capacitor and the windings of the electromagnet, the alternating field of which circuit erases the recording on the magnetic tape spool, which rotates about the winding axis in this drawer-type tape eraser. This device necessitates complicated operating procedures and is unsuitable, for example, for demagnetization several wound-up recording media stacked on top of one another.
Further demagnetizing devices known from the prior art are described in the DE-C 37 36 024 of the applicants, for example. This specification comprises a description of a demagnetizing device which consists of an alternating current-operated electromagnet which is provided with exciting windings and between the yokes of which, arranged on either side of the recording medium to be demagnetize, the latter is moved by means of a conveying device, an essentially perpendicular alternating field distribution existing between the opposite yokes and the magnetic recording media initially passing through an area of constant flux density in the free space between the yokes, in which area there is a constant perpendicular spacing between the two yokes with respect to the direction of a movement and at a right angle thereto, and then through a further area in which the perpendicular spacing between the yokes increases monotonically and the flux density decreases. Although a device of this kind can in fact simultaneously erase up to 15 wound-up recording media stacked on top of one another--so-called pancakes--in one pass, it is extremely large and very heavy and therefore exceedingly expensive to acquire and operate.